I imagined I would be talking lag and uneven torque delivery. Not a bit of it: this engine pulls strongly from nothing, cruises smoothly, can handle a tall gearing and can punt this two-tonne machine from 0-60mph in a mere 7.6sec. I can pass people easily on the open road using kickdown.
Its fuel consumption is a bugbear, but I had expected that. The usual is 24-26mpg in any use, and if you ever see 28mpg, you get the flags out. Even so, you can expect a touring range close to 500 miles, because the fuel tank is vast, at 99.5 litres.
So far, my mode of use has been town running and motorways; not much off-roading. Despite that, this is proving to be a handy car: easy to use and immensely tough. Better still, it’s enjoyable. I love knowing it can’t be hurt by kerbs or potholes; I revel in the engine performance.
The straight-backed driving position suits me too. The ultra-compact dashboard layout has switches. And the whole thing has that air of simple optimism that can still be found in American machinery, even if nothing much these days comes from one country.
Other Wrangler drivers wave at you (although the whole Wrangler community ignores lesser Jeep models). Defender owners seem not to think much of Wranglers – and they do, it must be admitted, drive a better vehicle.
But in your Wrangler you’re weirdly content, laughing, as I said earlier, at sober perfectionism. I’ve got months of this ahead – bring it on.
Update 2
The Wrangler has been here for only a few weeks and I’ve already done 4500 miles. One reason is that we’ve been busy, but it’s mostly because, for all its beguiling crudity, the Jeep turns out to be (as I knew it would) one of those happy cars you use for everything.
When the task is to drive from our village to an area of restricted parking in the nearby market town, I’d usually take a smaller car from our fleet – the Dacia Duster or the Mini – but I find myself thinking ‘what the hell’ and taking the Jeep anyway. With its elevated driving position, straight sides, excellent mirrors and good defences against other parkers, it’s an easy choice.
